, 1887-04-07
wAsHINGTON NOTES.
coNGRAruLATINo NEW OFFICIALS,


The treasury department presented
an unusual spectacle this afternoon.
The appointment of Secretary Fair.
child and Assistant Secretary May
nard caused great rejoicing among the
employees and they expressed universal
desire to be allowed to extend their
congratulations in person. Apparent
ly no promotions were ever made in
the treasury department that met
with such general favor among the
employees. The two officials there
fore consented to receive such
of the employees rs de-
sired to pay their respects
after the close Of business.
Word to that effect was sent through
the building and by 3 O'Clock large
crowd had congregated in the corridor
opening into the secretary's Office. Mr..
Fairchld was visited first and then
Mr.. Maynard, the crowd passing in
stream from the room Of Mr.. Fair
child to the corridor, then into the
chiefs of divisions, clerks of all grades,
messengers, watchmen, laborers and
chairwomen mingled in the crowd and
shook hands with the newly appointed
officers.
ABOUT ADULTERATED FOOD.
The popular notions with respect to
the extent of the practice of butter
adulteration before the oleomargarine
law went into effect will not be sus-
tanned by the forthcoming report be-
fore Prof, Wiley, chemist of the de-
partment of agriculture, on this sub
tect. Prof. Wiley's experiments have
been progressing more than Il year.
Materials for investigation were pur-
chased in opensmarket in all parts of
the country, no intimation being given
which the purchase was intend
ed. In not moro than one
third of the cases did the purchase
prove to be an adulteration or imita-
ton, except when something else than
butter was asked for and fraudulent
articles were almost invariably those
when low priced materials were called
for. In no instance was it found that
m article sold in the market as butter
was entirely fraudulent. The adulter-
ated article usually contained between
30 and 40 per cent. of pure butter, the
remainder most commonly consisting
of beef fat, lard and cotton seed oil
Prof. Wiley devotes some space to
consideration OF the opinion of scien-
tifC men in regard to the wholesome
ness of oleomargarine and kind
red compounds. He finds
that about nine out of every
ten of the scientists who have ex-
pressed themselves declare the belief
that properly made oleom argurine is
unobjectionable and wholesome. The
larger and more important parts of
this report is devoted to an analysis
of dairy products and their substi-
Lutcs and methods of determining
3ulteration. The chemists oppor-
tunities for investigation are greater
than have ever before been offered
and the result is II treatise which
covers every detail Of this important
subject. The conclusion is reached
that the microscope is II much more
useful instrument i'll this direction
than European chemists have ever
been willing to admit, and is, in fact,
an invaluable adjunct to the chemical
laboratory for this particular work.
Chemical methods of analysis are,
treated and few simple means of
detection for popular use are pointed
out Artificial coloriug substances are
discussed and those which are harm
ful and those which are harmless
are described. This report
is to form II part OF No. l
of departmental Bulletin
No. 49," Part No. 2 will be Mr..
Richardson's report on spices, Adul-
teration of baking powders, native
beers, wines and elders, flour, meal,
rice and other cereal productions and
ktss, coffee, cocoa and articles OF that
Prescription will form subjects of other
parts oil the bulletin.
CLERICAL ASSISTANCE.
The Interstate commerce commits
sioners have made request for IA tenn
porary clerical assistant. The secre-